Gunstock panel seeks to oust member over conflict claims

The Gunstock Area Commission has voted no confidence in Commissioner Peter Ness and wants the Belknap County Legislative Delegation to boot him from office over allegations of conflict of interest and insulting behavior toward resort employees.

The request is on the agenda for the delegation’s meeting Monday at 7 p.m. in the County Complex in Laconia.

Tom Quarles, an attorney hired by the commission that oversees the county-owned Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford found Ness repeatedly tried to sell his snow sports instruction software program to the ski area and disrupted ski instructors, reducing one to tears.

For his part, Ness said in a memo to the delegation that there was no conflict because nothing was sold. He disputes the allegations about his behavior toward employees as hearsay that is unsubstantiated, anonymous and false.

The blow-by-blow report from Quarles and the unusual step of a commission seeking to oust one of its own opens a window on the sometimes difficult world of snow sports instruction and the fraught politics of running a ski area.

Ness, a Belmont attorney, is a top-level professional ski instructor who taught at Cannon Mountain and at Gunstock.

“Following his employment during the 2019-2020 ski season at Gunstock, he was told he would not be rehired for the next season because of his poor performance review, his abrasive and disruptive relationships with other snowsports instructors and the Snowsports Department’s management,” Quarles said in his report.

Ness became a commissioner in November 2019.

“As a Commissioner, Mr. Ness has repeatedly interfered with Gunstock ski instructors and their lessons,” the report states. “He has approached ski instructors during lessons, questioned their credentials and challenged their abilities. He has then often asked the instructor, ‘Do you know who I am’ and identified himself as a GAC Commissioner.

“This brought one instructor to tears because she thought she would lose her job. He has interrupted ski instructor lineups on busy holiday weekends and vacation weeks, telling ski instructors how under-trained, under-paid and under-valued they are by Gunstock, to the degree that the Snowsports Manager asked him to leave. He refused, saying he didn't need to listen to her.”

The report also said he would quiz instructors while they were teaching lessons, embarrassing them in front of their students.

“He has also confronted ski patrollers on the trails asking them about their credentials and why they were closing a trail,” the report said. “When one patroller would not engage with Mr. Ness, he insulted the patroller's skiing ability and ski equipment and told him he should take a ski lesson.”

The report also said Ness disparaged the skiing ability and appearance of Gunstock’s human resources director.

Ness said in his memo that he was merely trying to gain knowledge in his capacity as commissioner and that he knew many of those he spoke to from working for a decade as a ski instructor.

He founded Arlberg Technology Partners and helped create software called OTTO, under which students could build a profile which instructors could review before a lesson. After the lesson, the instructor could provide a lesson summary, video content or pertinent media links. The student would also have the ability to review the instructor.

Attorney Quarles said in his report that Ness improperly told instructors about OTTO and his opinion that Gunstock needs to buy it.

“He has repeatedly pressed Gunstock Snowsports Department management to buy his OTTO product,” the report stated.

Quarles said these sales attempts are in violation of state laws and the 1959 enabling statutes creating the Gunstock Area Commission.

New Hampshire RSA 95:1 states, “No person holding a public office ... shall, by contract or otherwise, except by open competitive bidding, buy real estate, sell or buy goods, commodities, or other personal property of a value in excess of $200 at any one sale to or from the state or political subdivision under which he holds his public office.”

Ness said in his memo these provisions "require a sale, payment, and presumably a vote by the interested party" on the transaction at issue. Since no commission vote has ever been taken on a transaction to buy the software program, no conflict has taken place, he contends.

Minutes from the Gunstock Area Commission show Ness has not attended its last three meetings.